Just picked up a schedule a few days ago – Lawrence of Arabia will be shown in 70mm Oct 1 and 2, Vertigo in 70mm Oct 14, 15, 16. Would love to see the Transparent event but will be out of town that week. Most of the cast will be in attendance. They are showing the first 2 episodes of season 3 as the “premier”. There is also a showing of a restored print of Multiple Maniacs with Divine Sept 16 (schedule says a print has been unavailable for decades).

Sept 10th is the SF premiere of “King Cobra” starring Christian Slater, James Franco and Garrett Clayton as Brent Corrigan.

Sept 11th is a 4K restoration of “Howard’s End”

Sept 17th & 18th a “Grease” Sing-a-long

Sept 20th a screening and q/a with Bianca DelRio and “Hurricane Bianca”

Sept 21st premiere of the Amazon series “Transparent” season 3

Sept 22nd a night with Alan Cumming

October kicks off with a 70mm screening of “Vertigo”

certain events where needed offer reserved seating, but in general this is and always will be first come, first served seating. The experience of this amazing theatre is added with queing up on Castro Street.

I’ve added 4 new photos – 3 exteriors showing the wider sidewalks and tile work in front of the theater and a long shot taken from an apartment balcony on Twin Peaks showing the bulk of the theater from above.

We were fortunate to catch a Sunday matinee of the recent Vertigo 70mm screening while vacationing in San Francisco. The pre-movie pipe organ concert fully contributed to the “event” vibes that accompany a movie at the Castro.

I also was wondering why it was in 1.33, since I know that when it was released to theatres, it was in 1.85. Maybe it was the full-screen edition for television. But they announced from the stage prior to the showing that it was a DVD.

The showing of “Love with Proper Stranger” was part of of a tribute to Natalie Wood series of films and it is possible that a good quality 35mm print was unavailable (something that, sadly, is going to be increasingly the case) and perhaps the Castro felt it was better to project a DVD version rather than totally disappoint patrons since the event had been publicized for at least a month prior.

Does the theater even have a 2k or 4k digital projector for new films? Because if it doesn’t, then the DVD is projected thru what I will call the slide projector and I would never pay a nickel to see it that way. For that matter, I’m not interested at all in movie theater projection of DVDs. Some movies are being put on 2k or 4k, and that’s a different discussion.

I visited this beautiful theatre yesterday for the Natalie Wood film festival. GYPSY was in 35mm scope, and the projectionist did an outstanding, making sure every reel was in sharp focus. But the second feature, LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER, was on DVD and was a little out of focus throughout. I know DVD projectors can be focused, because I have operated them. Why then, did he take extra care on GYPSY, but for LOVE WITH THE PROPER STRANGER he just turned the projector on and didn’t fine-tune the focus?

Screen masking is used when widescreen films are shown to achieve a screen size with the appropriate ratio; the Castro can show just about any film format, including 70mm films (except, of course, for three-panel Cinerama). I saw “Lawrence of Arabia there some years ago; it looked magnificent. They will soon be showing a 70mm print of “Vertigo”.

I met Keith Arnold, the Castro’s new programmer and general manager, by chance in front of the theater just an hour ago. He tells me the internet rumor that the theater will not be showing film after Dec 31 was spread by a disgruntled former employee and is totally false. This has also been confirmed on The Castro’s Facebook page.

KTVU-2 news last night reported that the Castro Theater will now be closed on Mondays and Tuesdays starting in April. This is due to the decline of available product to play in the theater (“revival film product) and a drop in attendence. The report did state that the Castro is still "in the black”. The same report also mentioned that the Red Vic Theater is having similar problems.